New York and San Francisco gay liberation activists' work is well documented but allow us to introduce Los Angeles' preeminent gay rights pioneer--say hello to Morris Kight.
His activist work began in the 1930s as a teenager. As the only male living in his mother's Texas brothel, he secretly helped women working there get vital healthcare. During the 1950s, he was part of an underground network of gay 'safe houses' that provided bail, health care, and legal advice at a time when the United States had laws criminalizing same-sex relationships. He turned his unique charisma and organizing skills to the 1960s anti-war movement and then working the rest of his life in the now public fight for "Gay Liberation." He fostered vital relationships with fellow activists, politicians, socialites, and gangsters. His style of organizing and activism showed the power of the "influencer" decades before social media brought millions together with a meme.
He founded groups that lead seminal protests that resulted in: The American Psychiatric Association removing homosexuality as a disease from its diagnostic manual, protecting civil rights for gay citizens in California, and reducing police violence against the gay community. And for every good thing Kight did, he took credit for more. He was a man who, with his many flaws, managed to alienate as many people as he brought together. His story brings to life his work as remembered by those who loved and loathed him.
Book cover photo credit: Henning von Berg
Industry Reviews
Maryann Cherry has written a seminal biography of the late and great Morris Kight. Considered by many the Dean of Gay Activists, Morris was my friend. We marched, disrupted, and created together a revolution. We were on the same political, turf that was Los Angeles in the late 60's and early 70's. We, along a few other misfit radical crazies, were part of a small band of GLF leftists. With Mother Morris orchestrating the grand and decidedly Hollywood production, the Gay Liberation Front would, both because of him and in spite of him, change the world. Maryann Cherry speaks honestly about Morris. I'm delighted to report that my own history and reflections are fairly and accurately chronicled in this scholarly, compelling, biography. She documents the bravery, sacrifice and significant contributions made by me, Morris Kight Donald Kilhefner and many others in the formation of Los Angeles Gay Community Services Center. She acknowledges well the cast of principal actors and walk-by characters who would played their hour across the stage of what is skillfully presented as a something of a five-part drama spanning the 83 years of the grand old actor's full, and as often as not, unnecessarily tragic life. The reader is transported back in time to briefly recount the roots of the Kight name and legacy. We come to know Morris as a boy, an under-privileged teenager, a handsome young man, a husband, and a father. Morris - the son of an altogether mad mother. He's a gay blade at a time when such a moniker could just as likely as not have seen him killed. And very nearly did more than a time or two. He's something of a scholar, he's a man-about-town, he's a small-time real estate developer, a flimflam man, a transcendentalist, he's a Gay Ghandi of sorts. One man, many characters, who are all of whom are part of the transformative tapestry that Morris Kight wove together to make himself who he was and now how he will be remembered. Thank you, Maryann Cherry. You came to this solid work only as a humble biographer worth her salt. Clearly you came neither to praise nor to bury the man. You have, in laying bare the forces and people who shaped our complicated friend Morris Kight, done well to separate fact from fiction all along the way. You have brought this giant of a man back to life. Your artfully chosen words allow us to travel with him through the hard scrabble clay dust days of the flat lands of his Texas cowboys. You escorted us through it all. At the end we were there in Los Angeles with everybody who was anybody. We were there when the not entirely Venerable Morris Kight was finally memorialized at Mother House of the Metropolitan Community Church by the Reverend Troy Perry Founder. Jon Platania PhD, Founding Board Member, the Los Angeles LBGT Center
